Watch actor, voice-over artist, former model, author and human rights campaigner Joanna Lumley’s London Story in the video above.

During our interview Joanna told us more about why, even after nearly half a century in the UK Capital, London still excites and energises her life and work. We’ve used some of her favourite London experiences to populate our homepage www.visitlondon.com from 20 Jan-23 Jan 2014.

Here’s Joanna’s top five things to see and do in London:

Battersea Power Station and Stockwell

“I have lived in Earl’s Court, near Holland Park and in Wimbledon and now I live in Stockwell. Stockwell has a lot of extraordinary treats. It has got the most beautiful war memorial which is painted with poppies and things. Stockwell has its own personal characteristics [and] it is now linked to Nine Elms and the immense new development there. [It’s also very close to] Battersea Power Station, one of the most iconic and thrilling parts of London, with its great four chimneys sticking up, you seem to see them all around, whichever side of the river you are. The power station is being developed into restaurants and places to live and offices and cafés and shops – a theatre even. Maybe [one day] I can walk to [work at] a theatre in Battersea.”

Holland Park

“Holland Park is one of the best kept secrets in London. It is staggering, I took a Canadian friend there the other day and she was bewitched by it. It’s got parterres, winding paths, statues, its own little opera house. It has got a beautiful restaurant, an orangery. It has got formal duck ponds with ducks who have babies…little puffballs. It’s got peacocks which roost in the trees. It’s got tulips in springtime and magnolias. It’s got camellias coming out before the snow has even come off them, it’s a fantastic place. It sits between Holland Park Avenue and Kensington High Street. You can wander your way around – it’s got a football pitch, it’s got everything you could possibly want and wherever you go in it, you’ll find a new path and a new way. And you can wear smart shoes if you want to be a smart Londoner and not be muddy, or you can wear football boots.”

London in 24 hours: Open Top Bus Tour and Fish & Chips

“If you really have only got 24 hours, I think you should take one of those nice topless buses, they are terribly, terribly good, or go onto the river, where you get quite a different thing – the whole city sounds different. Take your camera and actually look at all these extraordinary places. If you can go to a museum, come to the British Library or the British Museum or the V&A or the Science Museum or the Natural History Museum. The Sir John Soane’s Museum is packed with treats. Try to focus on something properly for an hour, then skitter about like a gadfly. Eat something, I know it’s England, but you have to eat some fish and chips.”

Knightsbridge, Piccadilly, Cromwell Road

“Whenever I come back to London after a long time away, the first thing I do is ask the driver to bring me straight down the Cromwell Road, towards Knightsbridge, veer off, round Hyde Park Corner, the great Quadriga of War – that fabulous chariot with four of them on top of the archway in the middle; a boy driving the horses furiously, and behind, aloft, holding the great wreath of peace, is the angel standing. Go round there, down past Buckingham Palace … and the great golden statue of Queen Victoria. Down Parliament Square, Big Ben, there it all is: still there, still gleaming.

“I think that I would die if I didn’t read books every day. Books are the most important part of my life and reading is the most important skill you can learn as a person on the planet. It doesn’t matter what else you have got. If you are able to read, you can learn everything that there has ever been known. You can read about everything, anywhere in any language, about every single thing that has ever been thought, or ever been invented, or discovered or dreamed of. So without reading, your life is dull, that’s what I say.

Following the success of Albion in Shoreditch, Terence Conran has opened a new British cafe near Tate Modern. Albion Neo Bankside serves British comfort dishes such as sausage and mash, fish and chips, shepherd’s pie and Irish stew. There’s a choice of shared or individual tables overlooking the open-plan kitchen, plus a further 45 seats outside on the heated terrace. There’s also a small shop and food market selling British produce.

Jones & Sons

More British fare is on offer at Jones & Sons, a new cafe and restaurant in an old Victorian textile factory in Dalston, which used to be home to the Arcola Theatre. The new East London venue serves Monmouth coffee, meat from the local Well Street butchers and a selection of London beers. Pop in for breakfast from 9am, grab lunch from the deli counter or visit in the evening for dinner.

and al fresco dining space at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Fields Bar & Kitchen serves pizzas from a wood-fired oven as well as a range of other main courses, breakfasts, cakes and takeaway sandwiches and salads. Open during the park’s seasonal opening hours, the new restaurant has a 72-seat summer terrace.

Unity Kitchen Cafe

Unity Kitchen Cafe is the first cafe to open at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Based in the new Timber Lodge building, the cafe has one of the UK’s best new playgrounds on its doorstep, along with the beautiful trees, meadows and parklands that proved popular with visitors to the London 2012 Games. Run by the Camden Society charity, Unity Kitchen is a small chain of restaurants that offer training to people with learning disabilities.

Flesh & Buns

New from the team behind Bone Daddies, Flesh & Buns opens on 8 August in Seven Dials, Covent Garden. The restaurant will be the first in London to specialise in Taiwanese hirata buns (do-it-yourself filled, steamed buns). The name translates as “tiger eating pork” due to the appearance of the folded buns with pork inside. Other fillings include Korean lamb, chicken with yuzu koshu and sea bass with coriander miso.

Tommi’s Burger Joint

Icelandic burger joint Tommi’s will open its first permanent restaurant in the UK on 6 August. The chain, which has six American-style diners in Iceland, opened a pop-up restaurant in Marylebone Street in August 2012. The new restaurant, in nearby Thayer Street, will have an informal, vintage feel and serve burgers made from British meat, as well as veggie burgers, fries and milkshakes.

]]>http://blog.visitlondon.com/2012/09/london-exhibitions-last-chance-to-see-4/feed/2What’s On in London This Weekend: 6â€“8 July 2012http://blog.visitlondon.com/2012/07/whats-on-in-london-this-weekend-6-8-july-2012/
http://blog.visitlondon.com/2012/07/whats-on-in-london-this-weekend-6-8-july-2012/#commentsWed, 04 Jul 2012 14:47:54 +0000http://blog.visitlondon.com/?p=27447

If you’ve always longed to learn the polka or fancy a bit of umbrella jousting, the event line-up in London this weekend is looking peachy.

The Chap Olympiad
If you’d rather be stroking your pipe and adjusting your moustache than running the 100 metres, Bedford Square in Bloomsbury is the place to be this weekend. Gentleman’s magazine The Chap invites well-mannered men (and ladies) to its seriously silly event, The Chap Olympiad. The “celebration of athletic ineptitude and immaculate trouser creases” will see contestants throwing cucumber sandwiches instead of the discus and battling in Ironing Board Surfing, Umbrella Jousting and the Pipathlon. 7 – 8 Jul

Hampton Court Flower Show
Look out for energetic scarecrows at the annual flower show at the majestic Hampton Court Palace. The well-loved scarecrow competition has adopted a ‘porting Champions theme this year to reflect – what else? – the Olympic Games. Green-fingered experts will be on hand, along with displays like this year’s central feature which is focused on community gardening. A topical addition to the line-up is the ‘low cost/high impact’ gardens, showing how a much you can do with a limited budget. Until 8 Jul

The London Open at The Whitechapel Gallery
Spot the art stars of the future at The Whitechapel Gallery‘s open submissions exhibition which showcases current London art trends. The 35 contributors were chosen by a panel of experts and their pieces range from a directory of fictitious telephone numbers by conceptual artist Martin John Callanan to a print of Saddam Hussein’s gold bath taps on an imitation Versace silk scarf by Pio Abad. Until 14 Sept

Soane Museum’s new spaces
This little-known museum is a hoard of treasures kept by architect Sir John Soane at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The first phase of the £7 million restoration of his neoclassical townhouse is now complete, and this weekend is the first chance to poke around parts of the building never seen before such as the geometric staircase painted to look like the walls of a Roman catacomb. There’s also a brand new gallery with an exhibition exploring the design of Olympic venues. Exhibition until 22 Sept

The Kensington Palace Party
All abilities are welcome at these free outdoor dancing lessons and demonstrations in the gardens of Kensington Palace. This year’s workshops pay tribute to the two Queens who have celebrated a diamond jubilee: polka and Morris dancing reflect trends in Victoria’s reign, while a rock and roll class led by the London Swing Dance Society will honour us “new Elizabethans” and today’s queen. Head to the Gold Gates to find a spot – it’s first come, first served. 7-8 July

This week’s sunny photo by Nootashey features a historic house in west London’s Walpole Park, Pitzhanger Manor House.

Pitzhanger Manor House was owned by the architect Sir John Soane who radically rebuilt the house in the early 1800s. These days, the house is home to the PM Gallery, an exhibition space hosting a variety of exhibitions and events.

Majerus is a portrait and garden photographer who regularly contributes to a number of UK national newspapers and magazines. Her portfolio of work includes more than 180,000 images, and she was awarded this year’s International Garden Photographer of the Year for her stunning image Layered Landscape: A Moment Captured (above).

I caught up with Marianne – who has lived in London for 25 years – and asked her about her life in the capital.

Majerus lives in Islington and has an obvious love for the area: “Islington is a vibrant area with cafes, restaurants, theatres and cinemas,” she said. “And it is close to some great museums.”

The 54 year-old moved to London “for the professional opportunities,” but she admits she does miss the beautiful countryside of her homeland.

While Luxembourgish home comforts are limited in London, (Majerus cites the Luxembourg Embassy as the part of London that most resembles her country), she has taken the city to her heart.

Majerus’ work can be found in the online collection of the National Portrait Gallery. Most of London’s major museums and galleries have an online collection on their websites so why not have a look; you may uncover some seldom seen masterpieces yourself!